Katie Ohe “Voices”, 2016 Silent Auction Lot #127

Katie Ohe, RCA, LLD is a Canadian sculptor of international renown, a beloved teacher, and known as one of the first artists to make abstract art in Alberta. Born in the hamlet of Peers in 1937, Ohe studied at ACAD, Montreal School of Art and Design, Sculpture Centre in New York, and Fonderia Fabris in Verona, Italy. She also studied for a year with Dr. Arthur Lismer at the Montreal Museum.

Ohe’s works are interactive, abstract kinetic installations, mainly metal, and based on ideas from everyday experience. Driven by a lifelong desire to express thoughts and emotions, her sculptures compel viewers’ fingers to set them in mesmerizing motion. For 40 years, Ohe has quietly endowed Calgary public spaces, as well as corporate and private collections, with her bold, elegantly fluid pieces.

Ohe is also a respected instructor, mentor, adjucator, curator, and lecturer, having taught sculpture at ACAD since 1970. Her students include high profile artists such as Evan Penny, Christian Eckart, Brian Cooley, Alexander Caldwell, and Isla Burns. Artist Carroll Taylor-Lindoe says Ohe’s teaching and art are inseparable: “Art isn’t something that Katie does, it’s who she is.”